More, More, More

For a pastor, tracking the Sunday attendance and focusing on increasing it can be addictive. Always wanting to see “more” people coming can become an overriding focus. While I have to be on guard against this, a couple of years ago, the Lord did something significant in me.

The Lord made me a promise that he was going to give CrossBridge “more” than we could ask or imagine in terms of a heart for disciple making. He clarified for me that disciple making is discipleship that results in a person passing on what they’ve received to someone else, who then goes and makes disciples too. Disciple making isn’t mentoring, it’s not just Bible study, it’s something that reproduces over and over as the Kingdom expands.

Yesterday I joined my first staff meeting since returning home with our Costa Rica team. Each of our pastors were sharing an update and it became obvious in reports, that we were seeing a glimpse of the “more”…and it was really sweet.

This summer we’re hosting three disciple making training sessions-110 people have signed up! All our life group leaders and lots of folks are wanting to become disciple makers.

At Back Yard Bible Club this year, we have 455 children registered-we’ll likely exceed 500 before the week is done! In April we had our New Testament Prophecy Conference-85 people came!

There’s “more” I could share, but the common element in each of these is the emphasis on reaching out to others so that the Kingdom of God expands within them. Jesus has called us to do this with those who are already his followers so that they, in turn, reach out to those in the world who do not yet know the love of Jesus.

Personally, I’m full of gratitude to the Lord for his sharing “more” with us, and I have this sense that he’s smiling a knowing smile because there’s so much “more” yet to come.